If you connect the soundbar to any modern TV via HDMI (it features eARC), you’ll be able to immediately use the TV’s remote to control the audio volume, but you’ll need to use the soundbar’s remote (unless you have an LG TV) to change settings. It also supports features like Tidal Connect’s Dolby Vision audio pass-through, making it a great bar for streaming music or connecting your disc player to it for full bitrate video (and audio).
Pressing Play
I had the pleasure of reviewing this system alongside LG’s new C4 OLED, which can add even more channels to the mix, bringing its own TV speakers to boost the center channel and make it sound a little more like the voices are coming directly from the picture.
The sheer range of speakers and the volume they can produce means you really get a sense of scale when scenes change or when you move from one type of thing to another. When playing modern classics like Dune and Mad Max: Fury RoadYou feel the vastness of the scenes in the audio profile delivered by the soundbar, subwoofer, and satellite speakers. When my wife switches back to RuPaul’s Drag Race, I’m immediately immersed in what’s happening on screen, with more traditional three-channel TV audio that’s immersive and dynamic, but feels much smaller in your space.
Photography: Parker Hall
You can adjust sound modes on the bar, but I tend to err on the side of standard settings except when watching a movie, where I experimented with (and occasionally settled on) Cinema mode, which passes a bit more sound to the surround and height channels, as far as I can see.
Standard mode basically listens to what the TV tells it to do, which makes it work very well with LG’s AI processing in recent model TVs. With this and the C4, it’s essentially a “turn it on and forget it’s there” feel, which is what I prefer in my home theater systems. There’s nothing worse than having to open cabinets and press buttons and wait for things to turn on and see each other. It really can’t be overstated how well it worked (and how rare this experience is, oddly enough, in the audio-video world).
The direct competitor of this model is Samsung Q990D ($1,700)which, I have to admit, I prefer in some ways. The LG’s audio profile can be a bit thinner and brighter than the Samsung’s, and I find that the Samsung model bounces sound off walls a bit better for a wider soundstage. That said, given how well the S95TR integrates with late-model LG TVs, I’d probably choose this over the Samsung bar if I were buying the LG TV, and I’d also buy the Samsung bar if I were buying a Samsung TV.
As far as simple (and, let’s be honest, not wildly expensive) ways to outfit a room with a pretty solid approximation of what you’d experience in an audio/video nerd’s cave, I think LG has really hit the nail on the head. If I were to buy a C4 and didn’t have a suitable sound system to match it, I’d really consider this.